A town board’s decision to disband a local volunteer fire department last month has sparked conflict in a small farming community about 30 miles northwest of New London.
Members of the Dupont Volunteer Fire Department say two town board officials — chairman Kelly Zillmer and Supv. David Barnick — violated state ethics laws by voting to disband the 62-year-old department partly for financial gain. They also say town officials violated open meeting laws by publishing meeting notices that were too vague.
But Zillmer says the allegations are unfounded.
“There’s nothing to this,” Zillmer said in a phone interview. “Those allegations are pure fiction. We did take the best interest of the town as the primary goal.”
Dupont residents previously received fire services from the Dupont Volunteer Fire Department and the Marion Area Fire Department, which serves the city of Marion and surrounding communities.
With one member absent, the three-person Dupont town board decided Feb. 14 to dissolve the department. That decision took effect Sunday and the volunteer firefighters have until Saturday to return property — including about $10,000 in a bank account maintained by department members — to the town.
Erica Healey, an attorney for the Dupont firefighters, filed for an injunction in a county court on Tuesday that ultimately could make the board’s decision void and would allow the volunteer firefighters to keep their property.
The ethics violation claims against the two board members are being used to support the injunction.
Zillmer’s son is a member of the Marion Area Fire Department and the Marion City Council, while Barnick is a member of the Marion Area Fire Department.
Healey said dismantling the town’s fire service could result in direct financial gain for Barnick and Zillmer’s son because only one department would be charged with responding to local emergencies.
But Zillmer says he sent a letter in 2009 to the assistant legal counsel of the Wisconsin Towns Association inquiring whether he and Barnick faced a conflict of interest because of their connections with the Marion Area Fire Department.
In the letter, Zillmer stated that according to his understanding of state ethics laws, his son’s position would not create a conflict of interest “as he is not a dependent on my support. Further, he stands to neither gain nor lose regardless of the Town Department existing or not.”
Zillmer’s letter went on to say that because the Marion Area Fire Department is a nonprofit organization and Barnick has no ownership in the department, he thought Barnick also would have no conflict of interest.
Assistant legal counsel Lee Turonie concurred with Zillmer’s assessment.
“It seems to me that your analysis is correct that there is not currently a conflict in your situation,” Turonie wrote in response to Zillmer’s letter.
Waupaca County Corporate Counsel Jeffrey Siewert, who reviewed the ethics complaints against the two board members, offered a different opinion. Siewert said in a written statement that if the facts in the ethics complaints are accurate, “there is reason to believe that a violation of ethics has occurred.”
Barnick, who was not aware of the ethics complaints filed against him when he was first contacted by The Post-Crescent, requested time to review the allegations before making a statement. Follow-up calls to Barnick were not returned.
In addition to the injunction, Healey also filed an open meetings law complaint last week with the Waupaca District Attorney’s office and plans to file another complaint in the near future. The district attorney has 20 days to decide whether to pursue the case. As of Wednesday morning, Healey had not yet received a response.
Zillmer said the town’s decision to disband the Dupont Volunteer Fire Department was an attempt to consolidate fire services. He said Dupont volunteer firefighters are welcome to join the Marion Area Fire Department.
But the 6 p.m. time of Marion fire department meetings makes it difficult for Dupont firefighters — who are mostly farmers — to participate, Healey says.
“That’s prime farming time as far as milking cows,” she said.
Bitterness between the two departments makes the possibility of a mutual relationship difficult.
Minutes from a Jan. 10 Dupont Town Board meeting indicate “confrontational issues” between the two fire services played a role in the board’s decision to dismantle the Dupont fire department.
Marion Area Fire Chief Joe Stuhr, who has been part of the Marion Area Fire Department for more than 15 years, said there had been some issues between the two groups in the past, but he would not elaborate. Stuhr said his department has been Dupont’s primary service provider for years; Dupont’s volunteer firefighters “just provide extra manpower.”
Dupont volunteer firefighter David Bowers, whose niece is representing the volunteer firefighters in the ethics and open meetings claims, said members of the former department would have no problem turning in their boots if that’s the consensus of town residents. He — and other Dupont volunteer firefighters — think the issue should be decided by a referendum.
“Let the people decide,” Bowers said.
He says Dupont firefighters have worked with animals and machines, and are better able to save farm property than firefighters from Marion.
“We can do it because we’ve been brought up on this stuff,” Bowers said.
